Charlie Blythe
Colin Blythe
Born: 30 May 1879, Deptford, Kent
Died: 8 November 1917, on the Forest Hall to Pimmern military railway line near Passchendaele, Belgium
Major Teams: Kent, England.
Known As: Charlie Blythe
Batting Style: Right Hand Bat
Bowling Style: Slow Left Arm Orthodox
Test Debut: England v Australia at Sydney, 1st Test, 1901/02
Last Test: England v South Africa at Cape Town, 5th Test, 1909/10
Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1904
Career Statistics:
TESTS
(career)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 19 31 12 183 27 9.63 0 0 6 0
O M R W Ave BBI 5 10 SR Econ
Bowling 757.4 231 1863 100 18.63 8-59 9 4 45.4 2.45
FIRST-CLASS
(career: 1899 - 1914)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 439 587 137 4443 82* 9.87 0 5 206 0
Balls M R W Ave BBI 5 10 SR Econ
Bowling 103580 4788 42099 2503 16.81 10-30 218 71 41.3 2.43
- Explanations of First-Class and List A status courtesy of the ACS.
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Profile:
A great slow left arm bowler, possessing a classical delivery and
looping flight. His action was elegant and smooth, a few strides
leading into a perfect upright sideways-on delivery. He pitched the
ball up to encourage the drive into a strong off-side field, and with
sufficient spin to trap any batsman unwise enough to try and hit
against it. He varied his pace well, and was deceptive through the air,
with more pace than most batsmen realised until too late. On the
uncovered wickets before World War One, he was almost unplayable
after rain, or when the pitch started to crumble. He relished the
challenge of bowling to hard-hitting batsman, bringing to his art the
virtue of considerable imagination - he seemed always to have
something more up his sleeve.
He debuted for Kent when 20 years old, and took over 100 wickets in
his second season. He bowled little the following year, due to
illness, but from 1902 to his final season in 1914 he took more than
10 wickets every year. His best year was 1909, when he took 215
wickets. In 1907 he took more wickets in a day than anyone else in
first-class cricket history, following 10-30 (including 7 wickets for
1 run in 36 balls) with 7-18 against Northamptonshire. He toured
Australia and South Africa twice, and America once, but in general
found bowling overseas less to his taste than in English conditions.
His 2509 first-class wickets were taken at an average of 16.8.
He was a fine violinist, and his artistic temperament, as well as
his epilepsy did not always react well to the stress of Test matches.
He died tragically young, killed in action at Passchendaele, and his
memorial stands on the St. Lawrence Ground in Canterbury (DL,2000).
Last Updated: Monday, 29-Jul-2002 02:00:10 GMT
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